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Lucas123 writes "Music streaming services, forced to give from 60% to 70% of their revenue to the record industry, will never be profitable in their current state, a new report shows. Unless the services can monetize their user base by entering new product and service categories, or they can sell themselves to a larger company that can sustain them, they're doomed to fail. One method that subscription services might be able to use to achieve profitability is to up sell mobile deals or bundles to subscribers. For example, a select package of mobile services would be sold through the music service provider, the report from Generator Research suggested. 'Services like iTunes Match and Google and Amazon are already heading in this direction,' the report states. Another possibility would be for a larger company to purchase the music service or for the service to begin offering sanitized user behavioral data to advertisers, who could then better target a customer base."

How about a system that lets the artists themselves opt in (bypassing ASSCAP) for a reasonable set of royalties. The artists would get more money than the record companies give them for their streamed music, the streaming companies would pay less in royalties, and the tyRIAAnosaurus rex can take another step towards its destiny.

And the Music industry isn't in a position to take on Google and Itunes and Amazon. Those three companies decide not to sell your crap-music, at your crap-prices, and you are pretty much dead in the water as a label.

Artists are getting smarter. They are starting to care about the license terms, and while they may release their first hits to a label more and more of them are declining to take long term contracts and trying the indi market.

Thing is, there are people who benefit from the industry. I look at Lady Gaga as an example. She signed a rather lousy contract, but in return she got massive promotion. In the end, she ended up a multi-millionaire, so she is happy.

You may not like Lady Gaga, but as long as there are people like her willing to 'sell out' in exchange for promotion, the recording industries will not change drastically. Because they will own all the copyrights.